swimbait , very first attempt

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I am almost ashame to just open one more thread about swimbaits , fore I have already found so many here on TU !

In fact hereby I'd just like to express my gratitude to Mark Poulson for his kindness and efforts to encourage and advice me in a couple of PM's about creating this interresting sort of lure in a fairly easy manner and without too much working effort:wink: .

Thanks a lot , Mark:worship: !

Though I am supposed to proceed with a lot of different lures , it urged me yesterday evening to finally start launching my first swimbait .

Didn't even make a design sketch at first , just pulled out a beechwood board(4/5" thick)out of that small wood stack in my basement , took a ruler and pencil and off I went !

After Marks advice I roughly made all the hinge affair prior to finally shaping the outer contoures of the lure(not done yet , will continue tomorrow) , so I cut all out on my drill press , which has a cross slide table and a machine vise(see pic) .

After drawing the outline of lure and the marker lines of the separation cuts , I first cut and sanded the back portion to shape .

The belly remains straight as a reference for furnishing the hinges and especially the bores for their locking pins .

The belly would finally be shaped , when the hinges are taken to proper function .

I employed the round sawblade to first angular cut apart the blank into its three sections , then I pre-cut the hinge slots and extented them with the thin router bit , they are now as wide as two screweyes held together to fit in .

I hope , that this space is sufficient enough to let hinges work , even after topcoating .

The slotted ends of the sections I then rounded off with that profile router bit shown , it has a radius of 2/5" , so just perfect for the 4/5" board .

On the opposite ends of sections I cut a kind of cupping with the thicker router bit (4/5" dia.) .

I must admit , that some nasty things happened whilst working , first a bad spot in the wood appeared , that I overlooked .

But I guess , the rounding-off of the back portion later would make it disappear:huh: !

Second thing is , that the rear section came loose from the vise whilst cutting with the profile bit , so that one damaged the surface of the wood , not deep though , but I've covered it with wood filler , hopefully the blemish would also vanish , when rounding off back portion finally !

Third was , that I forgot to fix the feed slide of the drill press , when making the slots , so the front ones got a little bit too deep , I guess:( .

Next step tomorrow would be to first make the back outlines of the sections more even , since due to the routing-off material some small steps came up between them .

After set in the screweyes temporary at proper locations and then make the bores for the locking pins , but I am still not quite sure , where to place those bores , either exactly at the center of the radius or a little off centered , towards the end of the section !

But I'll find about that , when the screweyes are fixed , I guess :

LEARNING BY DOING:wink: !

I am not claiming , that this is perfect or even the right way to proceed , and I am still a little uncertain about this swimbait thing , but I believe , that up to now I got further , than I expected so far:)! Thanks again , Mark !

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Looks like you'e well along on the swimbait curve. And you've discovered the big secret, that it not really that hard to do, just time consuming.

With your shaping, painting, and finishing skills, this type of lure is a natural for you, and should be a piece of cake.

Save your Euros, and invest in an occilating belt sander. Way easier to shape lures with a sander than with a router, and symetry isn't really that critical in swimbaits.

I am looking forward to when you post photos of your finished lures, hanging out of a 50" pike's mouth.

I am almost ashame to just open one more thread about swimbaits , fore I have already found so many here on TU !

In fact hereby I'd just like to express my gratitude to Mark Poulson for his kindness and efforts to encourage and advice me in a couple of PM's about creating this interresting sort of lure in a fairly easy manner and without too much working effort:wink: .

Thanks a lot , Mark:worship: !

Though I am supposed to proceed with a lot of different lures , it urged me yesterday evening to finally start launching my first swimbait .

Didn't even make a design sketch at first , just pulled out a beechwood board(4/5" thick)out of that small wood stack in my basement , took a ruler and pencil and off I went !

After Marks advice I roughly made all the hinge affair prior to finally shaping the outer contoures of the lure(not done yet , will continue tomorrow) , so I cut all out on my drill press , which has a cross slide table and a machine vise(see pic) .

After drawing the outline of lure and the marker lines of the separation cuts , I first cut and sanded the back portion to shape .

The belly remains straight as a reference for furnishing the hinges and especially the bores for their locking pins .

The belly would finally be shaped , when the hinges are taken to proper function .

I employed the round sawblade to first angular cut apart the blank into its three sections , then I pre-cut the hinge slots and extented them with the thin router bit , they are now as wide as two screweyes held together to fit in .

I hope , that this space is sufficient enough to let hinges work , even after topcoating .

The slotted ends of the sections I then rounded off with that profile router bit shown , it has a radius of 2/5" , so just perfect for the 4/5" board .

On the opposite ends of sections I cut a kind of cupping with the thicker router bit (4/5" dia.) .

I must admit , that some nasty things happened whilst working , first a bad spot in the wood appeared , that I overlooked .

But I guess , the rounding-off of the back portion later would make it disappear:huh: !

Second thing is , that the rear section came loose from the vise whilst cutting with the profile bit , so that one damaged the surface of the wood , not deep though , but I've covered it with wood filler , hopefully the blemish would also vanish , when rounding off back portion finally !

Third was , that I forgot to fix the feed slide of the drill press , when making the slots , so the front ones got a little bit too deep , I guess:( .

Next step tomorrow would be to first make the back outlines of the sections more even , since due to the routing-off material some small steps came up between them .

After set in the screweyes temporary at proper locations and then make the bores for the locking pins , but I am still not quite sure , where to place those bores , either exactly at the center of the radius or a little off centered , towards the end of the section !

But I'll find about that , when the screweyes are fixed , I guess :

LEARNING BY DOING:wink: !

I am not claiming , that this is perfect or even the right way to proceed , and I am still a little uncertain about this swimbait thing , but I believe , that up to now I got further , than I expected so far:)! Thanks again , Mark !

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You are doing a great job! I hope with the nose being that fat that the lure will swim good for you. If not, try a more streamline shape next time. Make sure you assemble the lure and give it a try before painting and finishing.

Also, you will get a more sinous motion of you add another joint to the very back of the lure. good luck.

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Though I slept quite long this morning , I still found some time to proceed with my new project , but now I must soon go to my lateshift work !

I'd rather continue working on my lure !

Anyway , Mark , you're so right to say , that it is not that difficult , just time-consuming .

And I don't need a belt sander , I guess .

I utilize 5" dia. sanding discs , that I can fix onto the electric motor of my lathe , its homemade by a workmate and souped up with a chuck of a drill , so its much more versatile than a shop-bought lathe .

You can see by containing new pics , that I have already sanded the lures contoures to a rough outer shape .

The joints so far turned out fine , only have to take off some material here and there to provide a more loose play of the sections against one another .

I also learned , that twisting out the hinge screweyes a bit more increases that loose play , but it surely would be better to put the body planes(convex and concave section ends) into a more sufficient shape to prevent binding , and mount the eyes as deep as possible .

Also your described method of making a reamer out of that wire used as hinge pins worked out well , even to drill into this harder wood .

I employed such a tool before to furnish longer bores into lures with a center wire shaft like "Globes" or "Whirligigs" , since an ordinary drill bit isn't long enough .

I ground cutting egdes onto the swaged flat point of that wire , similar to an original drill bit .

@ RiverMan

I intended from the start to put that bait into a more rounded shape , though I want to leave the top of its head rather plane , to act as a sort of diving bill to provide better wiggle(in my theory:huh:) . Yet it is still in process .

As I do with all of my lures , I'll give them a thin clearcoat and try them , after the final shaping and assembly is done , in my bath tube for action and weighting , but thanks for the hint , anyway !

@ StoneCoalTackle

Guess , you ought to be patient:) , I have about 2 1/2 dozens of different lures in under construction presently , so it should take a while , until this particular one is about to hit the waters for the first time , but I would surely put it amongst those to be the first ones to paint and seal !

Alright , folks , thanks again , must be off now to work....... !

Greetz , Dieter

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diemai- for a first attempt, you certainly have jumped in the deep end, jointed lures, would have to be the hardest. You certainly seem to have the tools and from what you have here, all the skills. Your lure looks like it will work, and if they look like that, there is a good chance they will. Anxious to see the finished lure. pete

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Jointed baits are easy. Since all they do is swim horizontally, and, hopefully, wiggle as they do, it's not that difficult.

Lipped cranks that swim right, on the other hand, are the hard ones. Lip angles, location of line tie, location of hooks and ballast, body shape. Man, the variables are endless, and they all affect the action of the lure.

Diemai,

Once again, kudos to you. I've found the taller shape makes the head more stable, and I get a bigger side to side action with the second section and the tail. My four piece lures swim more snake like, and the 12" five piece even more so, although I think I'll hire someone to cast it for me.

As to the shape of the first section, I taper my baits from the line tie back to the first joint, so the head is almost V shaped, or a pointed U shape, and then back again toward the tail, so the first joint is the fattest part of the lure. That just looked right to me so I did it that way. No ryme or reason. The triple trout by 22nd Century, the gold standard three piece trout lure here in SoCal, is more similar to yours in that the thickness of the lure remains constant for most of the lure, or at least it looks that way to me. And it swims really well.

I learned early on to make the joints looser, to leave room for finish and epoxy, and so they would swim more. My first attempt at a jointed lure, which was a glide bait that I cut up, was beautiful looking, with hinges were hidden, but it didn't swim for beans. So now I leave the screw eyes out a little farther now, so I have 3/16" clearance before finishing. Seems to be about right. And the fish don't seem to care.

Using screw eyes lets me do adjustments after I've shaped the lure and finished the hinge detailing. I can assemble the sections two at a time, and play with the screw depth until I'm happy. I can even bend them a little when they're in the final position, to compensate for any errors I have in positioning. Then I remove them one at a time, and epoxy them in , so I can use the other one in the pair for depth reference.

And be sure to ease the edges of your sections so you don't have any sharp edges. It won't affect the action or looks of the lure, but your finish will bond better to it. I don't know about the actual system you use, but epoxy doesn't like sharp edges. It seems to like to pull away as it sets, leaving little fish eyes and weak spots.

I reviewed your gallery pics again this morning, and was reminded again of how fertile you imagination is.

I have a fertile mind, too, but those who know me think it's due to the abundance of fertilizer up there.

Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing some huge pike with your lures hanging from their mouths.

Edited June 16, 2008 by mark poulson

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Man thats just great diemai, you and I were the last two men standing who hasnt made a swim bait now you went and done it!!! Just joking your bait looks great!!!! I will be following in your footsteps, dont want to be the last one standing LOL.... I cant wait to see your finished bait Im sure it will look good as all your baits do.

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This morning I again proceeded a little on my swimbait , at a glance not much has been done since yesterday , only continued working on the hinges to let them have the proper swing required(I suppose:huh:).

Since I like Mark Poulson's idea quite a bit about not permanentely bonding the hinges , but leave the possibility of disassembly(for maintainance)even on the entirely finished bait , I have thought about the features pictured here in this reply .

I intend to furnish a dorsal fin and tailfin of fibres or brush bristles onto my lure , so I could not quite employ Mark's method of glueing the 90

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Looks like you have got a good grip on your swimbait. I think your going to have a winner on your hands. I have found that I get different ideas form different folks, internalize them and think think them over, and after a while, I produce what I think is the best product to meet my objectives. Tweaking and tuning are just part of the development cycle and part of the project. Good luck and keep posting your progress.

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Thank you all again for your kind words of encouragement , I wish that I had more time working on my lure , but mornings always go so fast and I must be off to work soon again , tomorrow I won't have time at all , got some dates in the morning .

Nevertheless I proceeded a bit again , I furnished the groove in the back of the second section to later glue in the dorsal fin .

Did this with a 1,5 mm router bit on that previously pictured drill press .

After I started out rounding off the back portions of all the three sections , I begun with the front part , it was nothing different than shaping an ordinary crankbait , only is more time-consuming , since the wood is very hard , not much material taken off at a time .

As a reference I first marked a sort of lateral lines onto the flanks , to indicate , where the roundings have to about end .

I always re-draw these pencil lines whilst sanding , since they vanish partly , just to keep up this little aid .

I initially start to coarse-sand the round-off with my "Dremel" and its coarse sanding drum(check pic) , one has to take care about not taking off too much material with it , especially on the fore ,-and aft edges .

The final rough shaping I do with a 40 grit strip of sandpaper , fixed onto a so-called "sandpaper file"(check pic) .

When finished with front section , I started out with one side of the second section and took it to proper shape , always eyeballing down the frequently connected sections(check pic)to spectaculate upon a smooth transition between the two parts .

When this was achieved , I just worked the other side symmetrical to the first one .

Same process is for the third section .

When employing the 40 grit sandpaper it is impossible to detect smaller unsymmetrical portions by eyeballing , so after smoothening with , say 100 to 150 grit(only hardwood) , such become visible and can be worked over with the rough grit again .

When symmetry is achieved , use the fine sanding paper over it again .

After I was satisfied with the entire shape , I finally sanded all smooth with that 150 grit .

Off course all sharp edges would be rounded off lateron , also the head ,-and tail end of the blank .

I always leave the ends for last on all of my wooden lures , when unfinished , they provide an assistance for eyeballing for me !

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First rounded off the bellies of all the three sections in the same manner as previously described for their back portions .

After I have checked them all over again for symmetry , and some passes of sandpaper here and there , I was done with it , so I could finally round the nose and tail , since I didn't need them unfinished as an aid for eyeballing anymore.

I've found it a bit finacky , to first brake the edges of those hinge slots with a small , thin file and then smoothen them by sanding .

Not , that this is difficult , but it takes it's time !

Finally I also rounded all egdes , that came up due to rounding back and belly , also extended all screweye holes with a 3mm drill bit about three to five millimetres deep .

I always do that on all my wooden lures with screweyes , since I glue these in with two-component glue , so a little "glueplug" created in that extension adds strength to the bond !

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You are making remarkable progress on your swimbait and it is really looking very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing it decked out with paint and fins. Just make sure you post a few photos in the gallery so it can be seen by all. Keep up the fantastic job!

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I guess , that my swimbait blank has now dried sufficiently from the wood preserver dipping , so I treated the inside of the hinge bores with some special wood glue to protect them from water sepage !

The method for this was kindly described to me by mark poulson !

Thanks again , Mark:worship: !

After Mark's advice I made the bores about 0,5 mm larger than the diameter of the wire pin , so now I put this glue inside the bore , pushing and pulling it in from either side with a piece of wire same dia. as pin .

I repeated this operation for about five times , inbetween I'd always scrape off excess glue from the wire , also carefully cut away the glue drops created at the entries of the bores inside of the hinge slots .

Also removed wet glue from the countersunks at belly and the small grooves on back of lure .

After all this the wire pins almost don't have any loose play inside the bores anymore , this is evidence to me , that the inner walls of the bores have been covered with glue to seal them off !

This glue , mainly used for balsawood model making , sets pretty fast and cures to a very hard surface .

Finally I gently removed all cured excess glue from back groove and countersunk with the router bits , that I used to furnish these , this time only turned by hand !

I am still planing to utilize my two-component clear laquer for further sealing , this I will do when clearcoating the blank prior to the first bath tube testing !

This paint has about the thin consistency of superglue and would surely flow better through the bores as this glue is able to do:wink: !

Hahaha , I was tempted to use superglue as well , but this would have ended up in desaster , I suppose:huh: !

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Thanks a lot , Mark , I am also hoping on a pike these days , but things get along so slow about fishing in my area , it's not , as it used to be in past years .

Yesterday I have fished a canal in Hamburg city for almost three hours , whilst my wife went to a fleamarket nearby , only had two missed strikes .

These pike were not in a good mood , only attacked the lures half-hearted and didn't hook up , since the whole day was quite hot and stuffy , only for some heavy rains with some thunder to come down in the afternoon:boo: .

Friday night my wife and me were fishing for eel until one hour past midnight in a gravel pit in the rural area of Hamburg , not even a single nibble on our bait , after some strong rain the night temps have chilled down like in early fall season , there was fog on the water , such nails down the mouth of them !

Only caught a 8" perch on my new small copper/white/black scales "putty spoon" (check gallery) , as the sun went down that day , it's just frustrating (but I am happy , that these baits obviously do work ).

But anyway , I am hoping for late summer and fall to have better fishing , since that has ever been the best season for pike over here , but maybe , I am only fishing the wrong waters ?

But I think , that it has to do with the change of climate , always unusual weather these days .

But this bait would surely be finished by that time , if possible , I would weight it to sink at approx. 1 foot per second , to get down fast to 20 to 45 feet , even though I think , none of you in America would fish a swimbait that deep .

But I shall see in my bath tube tests , if such would be possible at all , if not , I'd weight it slow sinking and fish it in shallower waters !

Cheerio , Dieter

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We've had a weird spring and summer start here, too. The water temps stayed in the low 60's farenheit up until a month ago, and didn't hit 70 degrees until two weeks ago. About a month behind. And for the last week it's been over 100 degrees during the day and up aroung 80 at night, so the water is warming fast. 1 degree in two day, up to 74 degrees now. I don't think the fish know quite what to make of it.

I caught a giant female bass yesterday afternoon, pitching a Yamamoto Ika tight and shallow next to a rock point. 8lbs 10oz. Unfortunately, she swallowed the hook, and fought so hard that she didn't survive.

When I cleaned and filleted her last night, I found she was full of eggs, ready to spawn againk, and had bird feathers in her stomach, a first for me.

I'd thrown my swimbaits in the early morning, and had a couple of followers, but not biters.

If she'd have hit a swimbait, she'd probably have survived and been released.